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Comment by pluc | Hacker News Reader

I was surprised at France's "international" (read: English) coverage of the Ukraine war from their state broadcasting France24.

https://www.youtube.com/c/FRANCE24English

They've been live and free since at least the start of the conflict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3MuIUNCCzI

It's interesting to see France cater to anglophones when in Quebec we do the opposite and try to convert as many people to French as possible in order to "protect the French language". You'll never see a French Quebec broadcaster spin up an anglophone version..

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>You'll never see a French Quebec broadcaster spin up an anglophone version..

The dynamics here in Quebec are obviously much different. France is a francophone country, while Quebec is a francophone province within a largely anglophone country.

The state media here has long had bilingual offerings. That aside, the French media here in Quebec doesn't really make money. They are kept afloat by government subsidies (this is true of a lot of the English media as well - most get handouts). So spinning off some sort of English version, for multiple reasons, is a non-starter. Besides, if you're an anglophone in places like Montreal or Gatineau, you've got English media anyway.

> They are kept afloat by government subsidies

Most media (that's not already state owned) in France is the same

The France24 text site is a regular read for me:

https://france24.com

Videos are embedded, but they wait for you to press PLAY! Civilization does persist, even on the Internet.

France24 is kind of alone on its purpose though, it's only meant for international audience and it's not read much domestically

Not entirely true, France Info is basically France24-but-for-France. Most of the coverage is the exact same.

I was gonna say the same. My french isnt great so France24 was surprisingly (?) good at the coverage of the war. They host great analysis too which helps to put everything in context instead of the usual sensationalist coverage.

France 24 is great, available in French, English and Arab

...and Spanish.

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